The amount of electronic equipment found in the office and home has increased dramatically in recent years. For example, in an office environment, the use of server computers is commonplace. Likewise, high-speed Internet access is becoming increasingly available, adding to the amount of electronic equipment in use in the office environment, e.g. T1 or T3 connectivity equipment, ADSL or cable modems, Ethernet routers, and WiFi access points. It is generally desirable to concentrate such equipment in a single location. Therefore, co-locating servers, network hardware, and other equipment simplifies the care for and maintenance of this equipment.
As the speed and power of today's computer and electronic equipment has increased, so has the amount of “noise” and heat produced by such equipment. This is in part due to the physical size of the various devices becoming smaller and smaller which further complicates cooling the computer and electronic equipment. This is realized by there being less surface area available for heat exchange. This means that there must be increased airflow through the equipment casing to effect cooling. The amount of noise also is increased because the cooling equipment is more powerful, to provide greater capacity, and such cooling equipment also generates more noise.
The noise from the fans and airflow is compounded by the concentration of equipment in a single location. Further, there have been attempts to decrease noise by placing equipment in sealed enclosures. However, this attempt to trap noise also trapped heat in the sealed enclosure that was generated by the equipment. The inability to remove the trapped heat has induced equipment failure. To combat this, modern enclosures have been vented in an attempt to provide adequate airflow to the equipment. Venting the enclosure allows much of the noise created by computers and electronic equipment to escape the enclosure.
A perceived solution to the noise problem was to provide a dedicated electronic equipment room, e.g., a dedicated server room. These rooms are very often sealed and provided with a separate air conditioning system to remove the heat created by the equipment and maintain a temperature for safe operation of the equipment. Depending on the amount of equipment and size of the room, they can also include noise abatement measures. However, there are a number of drawbacks to this solution. Providing a dedicated electronic equipment room is expensive and often requires valuable office space to be sacrificed. In addition, although noise levels can be reduced outside the dedicated equipment room, the noise level in the dedicated equipment room can be quite high. This can create an unpleasant, and sometime harmful, environment for those who must work on or with the electronic equipment.
Similar problems with noise were encountered in the home environment. As the amount of audio and video equipment in the home increases, so does the level of noise produced by the need to cool such equipment. For example, a common home theater system often includes one or more of the following items: a cable signal converter box, a satellite video tuner, a video cassette recorder (VCR), digital video recorder (DVR), a digital video disc (DVD) player, an audio tuner/amplifier system, and/or a media PC. Many people find this vast collection of electronic equipment unsightly.
To alleviate the problem, many home theater owners sought to hide the electronic equipment inside of enclosures or furniture. These owners encounter similar problems with heat and noise as do offices. Some home theater equipment is cooled by natural convection rather than forcing air through the equipment casing with cooling fans. When equipment is placed in an enclosure, heat is trapped, which can lead to equipment failure or a reduction of equipment life.
There is a need for a system and method that provides better noise and heat reduction for electronic equipment. The present invention overcomes the problems of the past by providing a novel system and method as set forth in the remainder of this specification referring to the attached drawings.